Rin returned carrying some type of soup, she must’ve been making in the meantime, shortly after I deleted the identification reports and deactivated offline mode in the system console.

Judging by the delicious scent, the soup should contain some type of meat base.

Rin careful walked over toward the bed with the bowl and held out the soup toward me, “Food?”

Accepting the bowl while noting that Rin had spoken in English, I complemented my own genius, “Brilliant. I fixed it.”

Excellent, I had no idea whether that would actual work. That saves a lot of hassle.

Rin tilted her head in confusion, and proved my conclusion wrong, “Ketos?”

Or not… I guess Rin’s learned some English in the past (future?).

“Nevermind, thank you for the food.” I slumped over in defeat while accepting the bowl of meat soup.

I’d really hoped that would work. The translation system must’ve been locked down on the server side. Meaning, I’ll need admin access.

Whatever, it shouldn’t be difficult to find the book with the admin account information. If I remember correctly one of the guilds has it. I’d recognize the name if I saw it.

…Wait, will I be able to read the book without the translation function?

I began to feel a small headache build up inside my tired brain.

Let’s try not think about that for the moment.

Drinking the soup directly from the bowl, as Rin had absentmindedly forgotten to bring a spoon (and I couldn’t easily communicate that to her).

The soup tasted far better than expected with a soothing aftertaste, and considering I already had high expectations from past experience, that’s saying something.

Rin’s culinary skills are quite impressive. Though that’s probably to be expected with someone who’s practiced for years.

After finishing the soup, I felt significantly better and more awake. At the very least, I felt awake enough to move about without toppling over like earlier.

When I attempted to stand up, Rin stopped me. Standing in front of me with a disapproving expression, she shook her head and commanded, “No.”

“I’m fine.” I gestured to myself, before attempting to move around her and stand up.

“No, carm.” Rin demanded, pointing toward the bed before snatching the empty soup bowl from my hand.

Staring quietly at Rin’s serious expression, I realized she definitely wasn’t going to let move about.

Judging by her non-verbal gestures, she’s probably telling me to rest further. I won’t deny it’s an appealing prospect, but I’d rather not waste more time sleeping.

“That… really isn’t necessary.” I attempted to argue… but looking at her unchanged stern expression, I knew this was a losing battle. Sighing to myself while laying back down to rest, “Okay, yes… Sleep, got it.”

Rin nodded in satisfaction and left the room.

Placing God-hunter on the bed-stand beside me, I realized I never figured out what was going on with her.

God-hunter, you awake yet?

Mhmm, Dad? You called? Why are you talking so quietly?

Speaking quietly? I’m not?

You are, though? Like, you’re barely whispering. I didn’t even realize you were awake.

That’s strange… Nevermind, since your fine. I’m going to head back to sleep.

Kay~

Pondering God-hunter’s words, I realized literally knew nothing about the mechanism of our telepathy beside the fact that it worked. That’s something I should probably test out later.

Despite my initial hesitation to sleep, I was still extremely tired. Even after briefly lying down, I found myself drifting off into sleep.

---

Elsewhere in the city, a crowded old fashioned bar down a quiet alley. The bar’s wooden walls contained several dartboards that people were skillfully utilizing and a waitress serving several drinks.

Overall, it was a typical bar. Rowdy, drunk customers. Posters on the walls. Drinks lining the walls.

Listening to the conversions by the patrons, they talked about meaningless recent news. Their opinions on various people, the latest gossip and rumors, and who would win in theoretical fights.

Nobody would immediately realize the problem with this scene.

If anyone stayed long enough, though, they would begin to notice patterns.

The easily noticeable pattern was that nobody left the bar. Nobody would head to the bathroom, or simply decided they drank enough and left the bar.

Had whoever stayed around been listening to the conversations of those around them, they would’ve begun to have a sense of Déjà vu. People seemed to be endless repeating the same gossip and rumors, the same arguments in their theoretical fights.

Should they have tried to join into the dartboard competition or the conversations around them, they would’ve been shortly dismissed in differing manners. Some would reply rudely, some drunkenly yell, and others scoff before ignoring them.

Despite the patterns, people could easily drink for hours and leave without suspecting anything. While alcohol certainly helps conceal the patterns, a typical person certainly wouldn’t stay long enough to begin noticing the abnormalities of the bar.

In fact, the only person with differing actions in the bar was the bartender, who currently had a bored expression and simply wandered about the bar. As he walked about, he poking at random people and messing around with various objects.

A bell rang as someone walked through the door. A brown-haired man entered and gazed about the bar.

“We’re closed, already finished last call.” The bartender said upon noticing his entrance, before making his way back toward the bar.

The man rolled his eyes, and made his way over toward the bar. “When are you going to stop messing around with these illusions and go do a proper job?”

The barkeeper poured a drink and slid it over on the counter, “Assassination isn’t a proper job.”

Picking up the drink, the man took a sip and stated, “It’s more proper than pretending to be barkeep.”

“I get actual customers occasionally.” The barkeep stated and smirked while gesturing toward the drink in his hand. “For example, that will be ten points.”

“Overpriced crap is all you actually sell here.” The man complained, dropping double that amount in coins on the counter. “Where can I find Milk?”

The barkeep swiped up the coins, while examining him with a doubtful eye, “You got injured?”

The man dismissed him with a wave, “A persistent leech caught on and is refusing to let go.”

“Not like you to run away.” The barkeeper plainly stated.

“Yeah, well… the leech is only a teen. I don’t need that on my conscience.” The man said with a sighed filled with depression.

The barkeep raised an eyebrow in doubt of his statement, “I didn’t know you had a conscience.”

“The leech is quite skilled and vicious.” The man grumpily admitted, “She killed around ten people to root me out. Dealing with her isn’t easy.”

“So the truth comes out.” Laughed the barkeep, before turning more thoughtful, “Still, you fought against a teenager and couldn’t beat her?”

“Pah, enough. Look, I’ll deal with it myself.” The man dismissively waved his hand holding his drink, “Just point me to Milk.”

“Afraid I cannot help you there… I heard she was clearing the next zone.”

“What? Since when?” Asked the man with surprise.

“Couple weeks ago.”

“Damn… I’m going to have to lay low and leave the Residential Zone for awhile.” The man sighed and took another drink from the glass.

“That bad, huh?”

Taking large gulp of the alcohol, he explained with a depressed voice, “Worse. I’m going to have to cancel my outstanding contracts. I’m not in a condition to complete them.”

The bartender whistled, obviously impressed with the feat, “How’d you manage to piss off such a dangerous kid?”

“Bad luck, mostly.” He explained, standing up as he’d finished his drink, “Someone tried to steal one of my targets. They had an interesting ability and the situation sort of spiraled downward from there…”

The bartender narrowed his eyes toward the door and asked, “Say, this dangerous kid wouldn’t happen to be around sixteen with red-hair, cat-ears, and permanent scowl?”

“Wha-” The man turned toward the door and saw Rin had just entered the bar. “Shit, we need to leave.”

The barkeeper spoke calmly, “Relax, I’ve covered you with illusions before she noticed us. She won’t recognize you.”

“No, you don’t understand. It’s not a matter of appearance.” The man stated, “She’ll just kill everyone here to find me.”

As if to prove his point, Rin gazed immediately toward the bartender and drew her sword and pointed it toward the barkeeper. “You, who are you.”

The barkeep whispered, “I’ll have my illusions distract her, when she looks away. We’ll slip out the back.”

“Sorry, I’m afraid we don’t serve people under eighteen here.” The waitress serving the beers apologized. “Can you please leave?”

Rin ignored the waitress and focused entirely on the barkeeper. Unlikely the other people around her, she felt the barkeeper contained a degree of danger.

“Didn’t you hear her!” A drunk customer stood up and yelled, “Get out, girly.”

Another random drunk patron blocked her path agreeing with the earlier statement, “This isn’t the place for the like of you.”

Annoyed with the person blocking her line of sight, Rin pointed her sword at his throat and threatened him. “Move or die.”

With Rin’s vision temporarily blocked, a woman took the opportunity to move toward the backdoor behind the bar.

Rin immediately noticed the person escaping. Throwing the man in front of her to the side, she pulled out her bow and shot at the escaping woman.

The woman barely dodged the arrow and slipped out behind a corner in the back, while Rin chased after him.

After Rin had disappeared around the back corner, the barkeeper gestured toward the entrance. “As it turns out, the front door is a better option. Come on. That won’t fool her for long.”

The man stopped him from moving toward it, “No, last time she planted an explosive at the entrance. Let’s use a window.”

“The kid used explosives? On an entrance?” The barkeep asked in surprise. “Wasn’t she afraid of that backfiring or hurting innocents?”

“Who knows?” The man shook his head, he had no idea what she was thinking.

There were too many variables that could go wrong with using such a dangerous trap. Not only was such a trap difficult to make. If you made a small error in the set up, you could even blow yourself up.

Even if you managed to set it up correctly, there were a million other problems that could occur. What if he’d gone through another door or someone else had opened the door before him?

It's beyond a miracle that trap worked as well as it did. His lungs and internal organs were filled with shrapnel, he couldn’t use that body again until he received major medical treatment without risking losing it.

Opening a window, the two people left the bar and escaped into the crowd outside the alleyway.

By the time Rin had returned, after realizing the woman wasn’t real, the illusionary customers filling up the bar had disappeared leaving it empty and hollow.